As long as something exists, it is not what it will have been. When something is over, one is no longer the person to whom it happened. However, one is closer to it than to others. Although the past, when it was present, did not exist, it now imposes itself as if it had existed exactly as it now presents itself. But as long as something exists, it is not what it will have been. When something is over, one is no longer the person to whom it happened. When that was what we now say it has been, we did not know that it is. Now we say that it was such and such, even though at the time it was, we knew nothing of what we now say.